SWTOR : EA/Bioware seemingly fired the French & German Community Representatives

February 28th, 2013, 02:05

Hello, everyone,

I just learned a few minutes ago that EA / Bioware seemingly fired both the French and German community representatives/moderators.

Now, people wildly speculate why. No-one has an idea, apart from "reducing costs".

The German community feels like abandoned and neglected, and the thought has arisen that both the French and the German SWTOR communities are not "wothy" enough for EA or/and Bioware.
Of course, people are angry now because of that.

Another point is that the English-language SWTOR forums might have undergone an restructuring, too.

Wild speculation and frustration right now.

Alrik

—  Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius  and a lot of courage  to move in the opposite direction. (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

For Germany IMO the answer is simple. German laws disallow any form of a fraud and con jobs EA is preparing. Community manager probably told greedy EA CEO to shove off with EA agenda how to sell nothing in a nice package and charge hundreds of deutchmarks for it. Okay, euros. God, I adore Merkel although she's not the one who made those laws, but still… In any case I really don't expect EA will get another german CM as every single one of them will tell CEO that in Germany some stuff are illegal.

For Germany IMO the answer is simple. German laws disallow any form of a fraud and con jobs EA is preparing. Community manager probably told greedy EA CEO to shove off with EA agenda how to sell nothing in a nice package and charge hundreds of deutchmarks for it. Okay, euros. God, I adore Merkel although she's not the one who made those laws, but still In any case I really don't expect EA will get another german CM as every single one of them will tell CEO that in Germany some stuff are illegal.

For France Dunno.

Players will keep playing their games. The government wont get involved. Video gaming is a very appreciated leisure, then a means of appeasing the crowd and one sector of "growth"

But - there is undeniable anger among the German SWTOR players.
So much that they just decided to open up German-language topics in the English-language forums - assuming (and protesting against it at the same time) that their German forums (and the French ones as well) will be closed at one point because of the reps/mods having been fired.

—  Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius  and a lot of courage  to move in the opposite direction. (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

The German community currently holds several beliefs because of what happened :

- Bioware / EA isn't interested in the German community anymore
- the existence of the German-language forums is nonsense right now without any proper moderators
- SWTOR is sinking, because EA / Bioware had to cut money so sharp that they even fired these moderators/representatives.

Besides, some of these mods/reps seem (?) to have reappeared in other EA communities again - with similar roles.

As a result of these beliefs, the German community had decided to completely abandon the German-language forums, simply because no-one will hardly ever read them from official side anymore.

So, if they want to be heard, they argue, they MUST go into the exile - into the English-language forums.

From which their German-language threads were moved back into the German-language forums, where no-one of/from the officials will ever read them.

Okay, one official statred that Bioware / EA indeed wants to read and listen to the German dforums, but in this statement it was also said that this would be "le4ss than before" - and the German Community saw only rarely official reactions when the mods/reps wre still there !

One special comment posted by an English-language forums user in an German-language thread which was at *that time* in the English-language forums is especially insulting :

Trollokdamus
I think one thread in German is enough guys, stop spamming the board with gibberish (to me), please >.>

His profile states that his place of living is "Moscow, Russia".

—  Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius  and a lot of courage  to move in the opposite direction. (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Things are a bit better because it is free… That doesn't say much good about their economic situation. Ingame purchases were probably a desperate attempt to turn things around imho. It's apparently slowly going bust, and like anything that goes under, it upsets customers (non-paying in this case).

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
One special comment posted by an English-language forums user in an German-language thread which was at *that time* in the English-language forums is especially insulting

The only thing I consider insulting and disgusting is the sense of entitlement of the German gamers. To assume the right to post in German to the English forums is retarded. If a forum is English then -out of respect for everyone who is participating- you need to stick to the English language so everyone (and especially the moderators) can read and understand what you are saying. The forum moderation therefore has every right in the world to move threads to the German forums.

Star Wars The Old Republic is a game created by a US studio that is only translated and localized for the German market. The world does not revolve around Germany as some German gamers like to think.
People can still play the German translated game on German servers. EA has only dropped the German community management. So what? Big deal. Life goes on.
Do German gamers seriously believe that previously to this move they had any game changing influence on anything? Really? They may want to consider rejoining us in reality some time .
Reality is that German forums are only run to appease the German community and give them a sense of "home" and some basic customer service. It may not be overly nice of EA to pull that support but business decisions don't always have to be nice. If people don't like it -> Vote with your wallet and cancel your sub or stop playing if you're a F2P gamer. Simple as that.